By David Gee It's not too late to Elevate! Our first annual strategic conference for leaders, and emerging leaders, in the recreational boating industry, is just a few weeks away, November 22-24, in Orlando. We had several people engage us excitedly on the docks at Fort Lauderdale. One person, a long-time industry marketing person, told us he loves that it ...

By David Gee On our last day at the Fort Lauderdale International Boat Show, managing editor Adam Quandt and I had an interesting conversation with our Uber driver on the way to the show. I'll share a bit of it. Uber driver: So you're going to the big boat show, huh? Us: Yep. Uber driver: Are you going to buy ...

By David Gee How do you begin to describe it? Over 1,500 boats, most quite large, wedged in bow to stern, gunwale to gunwale, seemingly stretching to the horizon? Yachts that have tenders that cost more than your house, day boats, night boats, bowriders, center consoles...all here at the Fort Lauderdale International Boat Show, and all for sale and looking ...

After 26 years with Volvo and seven as president of Volvo Penta of the Americas, it was announced today at the Fort Lauderdale International Boat Show that Ron Huibers has decided to retire from his current role and move to another role within Volvo Penta. Succeeding Ron will be Martin Bjuve, currently CFO and SVP Business Office Volvo Penta. The ...

By David Gee When you are in the media, you are on the receiving end of lots of marketing messages. Some are good, some are bad and some are really ugly. In fact, there is about an 80-percent chance there is something fundamentally wrong with your marketing. It’s flawed because it’s about you, your company, and not them, your prospect ...

For 15 years, the Boating Industry Top 100 has recognized the best boat dealers in North America for their business acumen, industry advocacy, customer service and overall success. Boating Industry is proud to announce the 2019 Top 100 Leadership Alliance – those companies whose support of the program makes the Top 100 possible. This year’s Leadership Alliance includes: Dealer Profit ...

The Sea Tow Foundation, with the help and support of its newly launched North American Sober Skipper Advisory Council, announces the unveiling of a new national awards program designed to recognize the best boating safety work in the for-profit sector of the recreational marine marketplace occurring within the United States. The inaugural presentation of the “National Boating Industry Safety Awards” ...

Nautical Ventures Group, a Boating Industry Top 100 dealer, has taken over operations of Anglers Marina in Dania Beach and will rebrand the entity as Nautical Ventures Marine Center. On the 10-acre site, Nautical Ventures will build a new 200-unit dry stack, a 15,000 sq. ft. showroom, a six-bay parts service facility, a ship’s store, and a waterfront restaurant with ...

By David Gee Bruce Van Wagoner is President of the marine group for Wells Fargo CDF, and I recently had the chance to speak with him about the state of the recreational boating industry from his perspective. David: About half of the dealers we surveyed for the Boating Industry Market Data Book experienced an increase in revenue and profits YoY ...

By David Gee When you are in the water, or on the water, recreating in any form, how much do you think about how clean that water is? Despite what I do for a living, how many invasive species articles I read and how many community water quality discussions I report on, I have to admit I kind of take ...